Multiple finger pushers

ABSTRACT

An improved pusher member for use in a gusset re-forming machine of the type having a reversible moving carriage for conveying a bag from a filling station towards a sewing station while reforming the gussets of the bag with the carriage reversing and returning to its original position to pick up the next successive bag. The pusher members comprise a plurality of pivotally mounted pusher fingers which are mounted on the carriage and retract to a non-pushing position whenever the carriage is returning to the original position. With the use of the retracting multiple fingers, a more positive control of the bag position is obtained and aids the re-forming of the gussets of the bag.

United States Patent 1 1 Hudson [451 Mar. 12, 1974 MULTIPLE FINGER PUSHERS [75] Inventor: Doyle R. Hudson, West Monroe, La. [73] Assignee': Olinkraft, Inc., West Monroe, La.

22 Filed: July 17, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 272,125

52 us. (:1. 198/221 51 1111. C1. B65g 25/08 [58] Field of Search 198/221 [5 6] References Cited I UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,587,677 6/1971 King 198/221 3,184,044 5/1965 Allen 198/221 3,428,166 2/1969 Burke 198/218 430,954 6/1890 l-lo11iday.... 198/221 3,301,374 1/1967 Proctor 198/221 2,681,758 6/1954 Lipson 198/221 Primary Examiner-Richard E. Aegerter Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Norvell E. Von Behren; C. Emmett Pugh; Calvin J. Laiche 57 ABSTRACT An improved pusher member for use in a gusset reforming machine of the type having a reversible moving carriage for conveying a bag from a filling station towards a sewing station while re-forming the gussets of the bag with the carriage reversing and returning to its original position to pick up the next successive bag. The pusher members comprise a plurality of pivotally mounted pusher fingers which are mounted on the carriage and retract to a non-pushing position whenever the carriage is returning to the original position.

With the use of the retracting multiple fingers, a more positive control of the bag position is obtained and aids the re-forming of the gussets of the bag.

7 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PAIENTEDnm m4 3.796300 saw 3 or a FIG.4

1 MULTIPLE FINGER PUSHERS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS Patent application entitled Gusset Re-Former by Doyle R. Hudson, Ser. No. 185,309 filed on Sept. 30, 1971, Group No. 324.

Patent application entitled Expanding Fill Spout for Bag Filling Machine by Doyle R. Hudson, Ser. No. 172,688 filed on Aug. 18, 1971, now abandoned.

U. S. Pat. No. 3,698,451, issued Oct. 17, 1972 to Doyle R. Hudson for Automatic Bag Opening and Filling Apparatus.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates generally to a bag filling machine and more particularly to that portion of a bag filling machine wherein the bag is transported from the filling station to a sewing station while the gussets of of the bag are re-formed or placed in a position to be sewn at the sewing station.

In the related patent application entitled Gusset Re- Former, Ser. No. 185,309 filed Sept. 30, 1971 there is disclosed the new and novel re-forming station which comprises a stationary frame having a trough-shaped upper surface which guides the lower portion of the bag as the bag is dropped from the filling station to the upper surface of the trough. In that embodiment the bag is physically pushed along the trough by means .of pusher members which were designed to exert a pushing force at the center of inertia of the bag with a combination of the trough and the pushers serving to accurately position the bag underneath the re-forming station of the invention.

The pusher members of that embodiment are pivotally mounted and spring loaded on the moving carriage of the inventionand retracted whenever the carriage returned to the filling station to pick up the next filled bag. The pusher members were retracted by the force of the bag as they returnto the filling station with the moving carriage. In other words the bags bumped the pusher members out of the pushing position whereafter they were returned to the pushing position by virtue of their being spring loaded.

It was found that the use of self-retracting pushers of the type disclosed in that patent application was sufficient for the smaller types of bags that had a box shape such as the five and ten pound bags; however, the arrangement proved unsatisfactory when the higher bags such as the twenty and fifty pound bags were used on the bag machine. The twenty to fifty pound bags are the type that are typically used today to package charcoal and ice that is commonly marketed for outdoor cooking and for picnic usage and this range of bag sizes cover the majority of packaging requirements of all products packaged in paper bags. When using this type of long thin bag in the bagging machine, control of the position of the bag becomes extremely critical if the bag is to be reformed by automatic mechanical means. In addition due to the heavier weight of the product in the twenty and fifty pound bags it was found that the self-retracting pusher member tended to jar the bag from its desired position and also did not function as could be desired when transporting the bag from the filling station to the sewing station. The use of the taller bags in that invention also pinpointed a problem of bulging of the bag at the side gussets which often resulted in malfunctions of the re-forming portion of the bagging machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to overcome the problems encountered in the beforedescribed machine there has been provided by the subject invention a new and improved novel arrangement of the pusher members whereby the old style self-retracting pusher members consisting of rather wide-faced plates are replaced by a plurality of pusher fingers of lesser widths which are pivotally mounted to the carriage and are retracted to a nonpushing position by retracting means which also return the pusher fingers to the pushing positon when the carriage is traveling from the filling station towards the sewing station. The plurality of pusher fingers may be located on both sides of the carriage throughout the height of the carriage with the ends of the fingers being in close proximity to each other so that a greater portion of the bulging area of the bag gussets are supported by the pushing fingers. The plurality of pusher fingers are retracted by a power cylinder mounted on a carriage which is controlled by controlling the means which time the retraction and extension of the pushing fingers in relation to the reversing of the traveling carriage.

Accordingly it is an object of the invention to provide the new and improved novel pushing arrangement for a gusset re-forming machine which provides a more complete support of the gussets of the bag during the pushing operations.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved pusher member for a gusset re-forming machine which allows the larger sizes of bags to be more positively positioned beneath the gusset reformer thereby minimizing the downtime of the bag machine due to malfunction at the re-former station.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a study of the drawings and from a reading of the description of the preferred embodiment.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side perspective view, in schematic form,

showing the basic filling machine operations with the various stations represented having bags in position;

FIG. 2 is a partial top view showing the bag filling machine and the plurality of pusher fingers for moving the bag from the filling station to the sewing station;

FIG. 3 is a partial side view of the bag machine taken along line 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is another partial side view of the bag machine .taken along line 4-4 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 5 is a partial side view of a second embodiment of the multiple-finger pushers of the present invention, similar in view to FIG. 4.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring now to the drawings in general and in particular to FIG. 1 of the drawing, there is shown a bag filling station generally by the numeral 10 which comprises a pair of movable arms 12 having a plurality of suction cups l4 fixed thereon for transporting a bag 16 from a bag holding stack (not shown in the drawings) to the filling device shown generally by the arrow 18.

tion (not shown in the drawings) afterit passes through a gusset re-forming station, shown generally by the numeral 20. The bag 16 drops onto a trough-shaped plate 22 and is conveyed along the trough-shaped plate 22 by means of a plurality of pusher fingers 24 to be positioned beneath a plurality of inner fingers means 26 and a plurality of outer finger means 28 forming the gusset re-former of the bag machine.

After the gussetts have been re-formed, the bag 16 is pushed by means of the plurality of pusher fingers 24 into a holding means 30 which functions to hold the reformed gussets in their re-formed position prior to the bag being passed to a sewing station. The interaction of the pusher fingers 24 and the inner and outer finger means 26 and 28 will be more fully described hereinafter and the references to FIG. 1 are for illustrative purposes only. The pusher fingers 24 are fixedly attached to a rotatable shaft 25 and are pivotally controlled by means of the power cylinder 27 which may be an air cylinder or a hydraulic cylinder or other power means as is well known in the art. The power cylinder 27 contains a power rod 29 which is fixedly attached to a U- shaped drive rod 31 by means of the plate member 33. The U-shaped drive rod 31 is pivotally mounted to a pair of plate members 35 and 37 which are in turn fix ably mounted to the shafts 25. v

Referring now to FIG. 2 of the drawing, there .is showna top view of the bag machine showing the filled bag 16 being represented at various stages of its travel from the filling station 18 to the sewing station (not shown in the drawing). The filled bag 16, as shown and represented by the dashed lines 32 is conveyed along the trough-shaped plate 22 by means of the plurality of pusher fingers 24 which are pivotally attached to a moving carriage 34 which is shown in greater detail in FIGS. 3 and 4 of the drawings. As beforementioned, the plurality of pusher fingers 24 are pivotally mounted to the carriage 34 by means of the shaft 25 and are retracted to their non-pushing position as shown by the dashed line 36 by means of the power cylinder 27 operating the power rod 29 through the U-shaped drive rod 31. When the pusher fingers are extended to their pushing position they are pivoted on the shaft 25 in the direction shown by the arrow 38.

In the preferred embodiment shown the pusher fingers 24 are located on each side of the bag machine and are also sized so that the ends 40 of the fingers 25 are in close proximity to each other so that the fingers will give support to the bulging gussets of the bag sides when the bags have been filled with charcoal, ice or some other heavy bulky objects. It is within the spirit and scope of the invention that the pusher fingers could be located all on one side of the carriage in which case it would be preferred that they extend past the center of the bag so as to give support to a greater portion of the bag whenever they are in the pushing position. In

the preferred embodiment shown the pusher fingers located on one side of the machine are horizontally in line with the pusher fingers on the opposite side of the machine so that the ends 40 of the fingers are in close proximity to each other. It is also within the spirit and scope of the invention that the pusher fingers on one side of the machine could be ofiset from the pusher fingers on the other side of the machine so that the respective fingers would overlap and interlock with each other as shown in FIG. 5 in order to give added support to the sides of the bag. The number of pusher fingers will vary with the size of the bag being filled in the machine and may vary anywhere in number from threeto nine or more fingers within the spirit and scope of the invention. It is also conceivable that the number of fingers could be as little as two if the width of the fingers were increased and the length of the finger as well as the spacing from one finger to the other was sized to give the necessary support to the bulging bag prior to its being re-formed at the re-forming station.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4 of the drawings there is shown partial side views taken respectively along line 33 and line 44 of FIG. 2. The view in FIG. 3 corresponds to the view shown in FIG. 4- of my co-pending patent application Ser. No. 185,309, filed 9/30/71 entitled Gusset Re-Former. In addition FIG. 4 of this application corresponds to FIG. 7 of the same co-pending patent application. For purposes of clarity the parts of the bag filling machine not related to this improvement have been shown by dot-dash lines and reference should be made to my co-pending patent application for a detailed description of the various workings of the machine in general. I

Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4 of the drawing the power cylinder 27 is pivotally mounted to the moving carriage 34 by means of the clevis 42 and the clevis pin 44. The clevis 42 is fixedly attached to a vertical bar 46 formed between the upper rail 48 and the lower rail 50 of the moving carriage 34. By the use of the clevis connection the power cylinder 27 is free to swing outwardly from the moving carriage as the power rod 29 drives the shaft 25, as beforedescn'bed, to pivot the fingers 24 between their pushing and their non-pushing position. For purposes of clarity only the forward set of fingers 24 have been shown and the manner in which they are connectedto the power cylinder 27 and also the manner in which the power cylinder 27 is pivotally connected to the moving carriage 34. The rearmost set of fingers 24 are similarly connected to the power cylinder 27 as can be seen by referring back to FIG. 1 showing the connections in a schematic form. For purposes of clarity the schematic form shown in FIG. 1 has been shown with the fingers 24 positioned all on one side of the bag machine; however, as beforementioned,

it is within the spirit and scope of the invention that the fingers can also be positioned on both sides of the bagging machine and'in thepreferred embodiment shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 the fingers have been shown in this manner.

Referring now to FIG. 4 of the drawing there is shown a view taken along line 44 of FIG. 2 showing the manner in which the traveling carriage 34 moves in order to transport the pusher fingers 24 and the related mechanisms associated with the power cylinder 27. The upper rail 48 is slidably mounted on a U-shaped channel member 52 while the lower rail 50 is slidably mounted on a similar U-shaped channel member 54. The channel members 52 and 54 are permanently mounted to the main frame of the bag machine by means well known in the art and forming no part of the invention. For purposes of clarity the manner of con- In the embodiment shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 of the drawing the pusher finger 24 are located on both sides of the machine with the number of fingers being four on each side. From this view it can be seen that support is given along a greater portion of the area of the sides of the bag gussets which presents the beforedescribed bulging of the sides which can cause problems in the formation of the gussets. As beforementioned the number of fingers and the location thereof may be varied more or less than the number and position shown in FIG. 4 to suit the size of the bag being used in the machine in relation to the size and tube of product contained within the bag.

From the foregoing it should become clear the there has been provided an improved pusher member for use in a bag filling machine which provides for a more positive control of the travel of the bag from the filling station to the sewing station with, this positive control allowing the gussets of the bag to be more easily ref d th eb minimizing downtime of the bag machine due to jamups at the re-fonning station. With the power driven multiple finger retraction arrangement of the invention, better support is obtained along the side gussets of the bag while the bag is being transported. As a result it can be seen that a new and improved pusher member has been provided which accomplishes all of the objects and advantages of the invention. Nevertheless, it is apparent that many changes in details of construction or arrangement of the parts of the invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the accompanying claims and the invention is not to be limited to the exact matter shown and described since only the preferred embodiments have been given by way of illustration only.

Having described the invention, 1 claim:

1. A machine for handling bags filled with material comprising a first station and a second station removed from said first station; a platform on which the bags are supported located between and connected to said stations; moving, reversible carriage means located between said stations and associated with said platform for conveying a bag on said platform from said first station towards said second station and then reversing to pick up another bag, said carriage means including as a part thereof improved pusher means for contacting and pushing the bags during movement of said carriage means comprising:

a. two opposed, at least similar sets of a plurality of pusher fingers vertically spaced and pivotally mounted about a vertical axis on opposite sides of said carriage means, the ends of each set of the pusher fingers located on the opposite sides of said carriage means being in close proximity to each other when said pushing means is in the pushing position in order to give support to the bag sides when the pusher fingers are pushing the bag towards said second station;

b. retracting means, associated with said pusher fingers and said carriage means, for retracting said fingers to a non-pushing position whenever said carriage means is returning to said first station, said retracting means also extending said fingers to a pushing position whenever said carriage means is traveling from said first station towards said second station; and

c. synchronization means, associated with said retracting means, for controlling the retraction and (14) extension of said fingers in synchronization with the reversing of said carriage means.

2. The improved pusher means as defined in claim 1 wherein said retracting means comprises in part at least one power cylinder mounted on said carriage means operate the pusher fingers.

3. The improved pusher means as defined in claim 1 wherein said pusher fingers number at least three.

4. The improved pusher means as defined in claim 1 wherein said pusher fingers located on opposite sides of the carriage overlap and interlock each other when the fingers are in the pushing position in order to give support to the bag when the pusher fingers are pushing the bag towards said second station.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said machine is a gusset re-forming machine, and said first station is a bag filling station and said second station is a sewing station.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein there is included a second pusher means at least substantially identical to said first pusher means located at a different location along said platform, said first and second pusher means being connected together for simultaneous movement thereof by means of a drive rod which is disposed parallel to and along said platform and which constitutes a part of said retracting means.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said drive rod is linearly driven by means of a power cylinder.

s UNlTED STATES PATENT OFFICE 569 CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,796,300 Dated March 12, 1974 Inventor(s) Doyle R. Hudson It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and thatsaid Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Column 1, lines 6 14 are deleted and the following is substituted therefor U. S. Patent No. 3,698,451, issued October 17, 1972 (filed February 8, 1971) to Doyle R. Hudson and entitled "Automatic Bag Opening and Filling Apparatus".

U 5. Patent No. 3,750,721, issued August 7, 1973 (filed August 18 1971) to Doyle R. Hudson and entitled "Expanding Fill Spout for Bag Filling Machine".

U. 5. Patent No. 3,755,986, issued September 4, 1973 (filed September 30, 1971) to Doyle R. Hudson and entitled "Gusset Reformer".

The foregoing related patents and patent application are all assigned to Olinkraft, Inc., the assignee of the present tion, and contain disclosures directed to various elements applica Page 2 Patent No. 3,796,300 Dated March 12, 1974 Inventor(s) Doyle R. Hudson It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

or sections of a fully automatic filling machine for bags including the bag opening, filling, reforming and final infeed portions thereof; while the preferred embodiment of the present invention is directed to the moving system used in pushing the filled bag from the filling to the final closing and sealing portions of the machine.

Column 6 line 25 (Claim 1 line 33). ,the parenthetical number "(14)" is deleted. Q

Column 6 line 30 (Claim 2 line 4) the word to is inserted between the words "means" and "operate".

Signed and sealed this 1st day of October 1974.

(SEAL) Attest:

McCOY M. GIBSON JR. C. MARSHALL DANN Artesting Officer Commissioner of Patents 

1. A machine for handling bags filled with material comprising a first station and a second station removed from said first station; a platform on which the bags are supported located between and connected to said stations; moving, reversible carriage means located between said stations and associated with said platform for conveying a bag on said platform from said first station towards said second station and then reversing to pick up another bag, said carriage means including as a part thereof improved pusher means for contacting and pushing the bags during movement of said carriage means comprising: a. two opposed, at least similar sets of a plurality of pusher fingers vertically spaced and pivotally mounted about a vertical axis on opposite sides of said carriage means, the ends of each set of the pusher fingers located on the opposite sides of said carriage means being in close proximity to each other when said pushing means is in the pushing position in order to give support to the bag sides when the pusher fingers are pushing the bag towards said second station; b. retracting means, associated with said pusher fingers and said carriage means, for retracting said fingers to a nonpushing position whenever said carriage means is returning to said first station, said retracting means also extending said fingers to a pushing position whenever said carriage means is traveling from said first station towards said second station; and c. synchronization means, associated with said retracting means, for controlling the retraction and (14) extension of said fingers in synchronization with the reversing of said carriage means.
 2. The improved pusher means as defined in claim 1 wherein said retracting means comprises in part at least one power cylinder mounted on said carriage means operate the pusher fingers.
 3. The improved pusher means as defined in claim 1 wherein said pusher fingers number at least three.
 4. The improved pusher means as defined in claim 1 wherein said pusher fingers located on opposite sides of the carriage overlap and interlock each other when the fingers are in the pushing position in order to give support to the bag when the pusher fingers are pushing the bag towards said second station.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said machine is a gusset re-forming machine, and said first station is a bag filling station and said second station is a sewing station.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein there is included a second pusher means at least substantially identical to said first pusher means located at a different location along said platform, said first and second pusher means being connected together for simultaneous movement thereof by means of a drive rod which is disposed parallel to and along said platform and which constitUtes a part of said retracting means.
 7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said drive rod is linearly driven by means of a power cylinder. 